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Osama alive, hiding in Pakistan: Fernandes

Defence Minister George Fernandes has claimed that terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden was still alive and in Pakistan, evoking furious criticism from Islamabad, which said the Indian leader was talking 'through his hat'.

In an interview to British Television Channel Four News on Monday night, Fernandes said he has information from 'unimpeachable sources' that bin Laden, the prime suspect in September 11 terror strikes in US 'is alive and living in Pakistan'.

"We have information the man is around and he is somewhere in Pakistan. We had it from unimpeachable sources," he said, adding the Pakistani intelligence agency Inter-Services Intelligence knew where he is.

Fernandes said according to the sources bin Laden 'was moving from place-to-place and the Pakistanis were taking care of him'.

Appearing on the same programme Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's spokesman Rashid Qureshi termed Fernandes' claim as 'Indian propaganda meant to discredit Pakistan' and said the Indian leader 'was talking through his hat'.

"If there had been any evidence of the whereabouts of bin Laden, I am quite confident, and I am sure the world also knows, that the United States would have been the first to know," Qureshi said.

To a question, Fernandes said he was not sure whether Musharraf was in the know of this as ISI sometimes operated on its own.

"The ISI is capable of doing its own thing. I cannot say therefore for certain whether Musharraf knows about the man," he said.

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